Looking for the perfect hotel whether you’re traveling for business or pleasure, is oftentimes a difficult task. A simple search can yield numerous results on deals, promotions and other sales, which can be overwhelming. Most of the time, choosing one may be more difficult because hotel websites are also filled with amazing promotional copies that will make you feel welcome, promising that you’ll have a luxurious stay the moment that you step foot into their lobby. With these things in mind, how will you know if the hotel/holiday can really live up to their promises, like Going Luxury, or if it’s just another bit of false hype? The more important question is, how will you find out if this is the perfect hotel for you?
Travellers have varying needs, and the perfect hotel for you may not be the right one for others. With this in mind, you have to ask yourself, what’s the most important thing you’re looking for in a hotel? Are you looking for one that’s situated in the middle of the city, or do you prefer to find a hotel that has great deals? How about one that offers an amazing bed and breakfast offers? To help you find the right hotel for you, we’ve broken down all the different aspects for you to take into consideration when you’re on the search for a hotel.
What’s the Most Important Thing For You?
Before you start looking for different hotels and before you get overwhelmed with all the choices, determine how much you’re willing to spend per night on accommodations. Is it okay for you to spend a little bit more in a hotel that’s in a premier location, or you’re fine with any location as long as it doesn’t exceed £150 per night? Or do you prefer staying in a hotel that’s small but is charming enough?
As soon as you’ve determined what your top priority is, you can then filter your results and limit your search. The following are considered to be some of the factors that can help you determine what the right hotel is for you, as well as looking for properties that are perfectly suited according to your needs.
Price: The majority of hotels and travel websites give you the option to sort results according to price. Make use of these booking engines to look for options that are available for your price range. You can also perform a mock checkout on a property that you’re most interested in so you’ll just have an idea on how much the overall cost is. Then, you can visit the hotel’s website and book from there. Booking directly from their website gives you the guarantee that their prices are much lower, and that most hotels can match lower rates if you find it from other sources.
Location: Just like pricing, the majority of these booking sites can also filter results according to location. You would be able to check which properties are by the beach, or you can filter your results depending on the neighbourhoods of your preference. Another great resource for looking for hotels are the traditional guidebooks – most often, hotels are indicated in these guidebooks and are often plotted on the city map.
Loyalty Programs and Miles: If you’re a frequent traveler, or if you’re a part of the frequent flier program, it might be a good idea to find a hotel that offers one of these loyalty programs. You can earn points whenever you choose to stay at that hotel, but at the same time, you could also earn airline miles if the hotel of your choosing is an official partner of your frequent flier program. Check with your program to find out which hotels they’re partnered with.
Environment-Friendly: These days, travellers are now trying to minimise the carbon footprint that they leave, and it has significantly played a crucial role in choosing hotels. Many travellers now opt to choose green hotels, and you can look for eco-friendly properties through various groups and organisations such as the Green Hotels Association or the Green Globe.
Family-Friendly: If you’re going to travel with your kids, you would want to find hotels that offer great deals for families in addition to their family-friendly policies.
Reviews and Referrals: Many people do not just book for a room with that hotel if they don’t have great reviews from other people. You’d like to know how friendly the staff is, you’d like to check the room’s cleanliness and sometimes, we wanted to make sure that the Wi-Fi is strong enough.
You can check various review sites and sometimes, customers who’ve recently stayed with that hotel are given the option to post their photos. Take this chance to check these photos as these are realistic snapshots of the hotel versus the staged and professional pictures that you usually see on their website.
Of course, you would also want to check those reviews that are too good to be true. While not all, there may be some hotels who post reviews disguising themselves as the customers, while you would also want to be fair with your decision, especially when you see a negative review coming from travellers that are too hard to please. There’s not a lot of these, but letting you know that you have to be cautious about these. Other than those, the majority of these are honest traveller ratings which you can use to help determine which hotel is right for you.